Everybody Dance Now! The Bals les quartiers de Paris!

It doesn’t take long for the French to get moving out on the dance floor. On the eve of Bastille Day, the local fireman(Sapeur-pompier), who I have learned are sex symbols in France, host a dance at the station in each quarter. Once we were tuned into the traditional event we did research and learned people will dress up in costume and one fire station advertised a strip tease at the end of the night. And a long night it is – the event starts at 9 and lasts until 4AM. There are about 30+ Balls so we choose one close to our house. We did not dress up in costume but we did attend the ball at the Port Royal . Within 30 minutes of the start of the Ball the place was hopping!!! I think the firemen kicked off the dancing by dancing with each other out on the dance floor and they were fired up for a GOOD time – screaming, hooting, howling and wiggling those behinds. Gals were flirting too. I have to say their behinds did look good – blush blush. Unfortunately the woman’s uniforms are not as flattering as the men’s. I would describe the event as a mix of wedding reception, rock concert and night club.

Wedding reception - because entire families come including the kids and the grandparents. It had an intimate feel like everyone knew each other. The firemen lead us in what looked like the electric slide at one point but not quite and then on frequent occasions a mambo line would form and the kids joined in at the end of the line. They played the oldies like Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Rock Concert - because when certain songs played would play there were wild screams and excitement like Madonna just entered the room. I did not recognize a single one of these songs.

Night club – because there were at least 7 different bars with the firemen as bartenders. The ball we attended had a beach theme going. One bar had a surf board, another with Pirates of the Caribbean theme, a love boat them and my favorite bar was the champagne bar(top left photo). The place was pretty wild at times with the firemen dancing on the bars and soon the ladies were encouraged to take their place. Once the 3 and 4 stripe firemen caught wind of this though they were quick to put an end to the bar dancing. They must have been the chaperones.

For me there seemed to be some subtle differences between this and American dance parties. For starters everybody was dancing before even the first drink. Men young and old would dance in groups with each other like the girls. Some would smoke while dancing! Many were dressed in I dream of genie pants.

We left around midnight along with only a few others. You could tell the place was going to get crazier and the cops right outside the place seemed ready to tame it. There were a ton of police right outside the door. Later in the week someone told us about a Ball they attended where 5,000 people came. I can hardly believe it and wish I could come back next year!
This event was one of the best surprises about Paris yet.

Sorry no pics it was too dark and I was feeling shy to catch some of the firemen dancing. I am guessing there are photos out their on the net that capture the scene just fine.